Saturday, October 22, 2011

Mr. Hawthorne Stir Fries. Beef And Veggies.

I've been on a mission of late
to clean out the freezers.
They, like everything else, accumulate stuff,
until you don't know how much or what you have
and then a hurricane blows through
and you see exactly how much and what you have ...
had ...
because it's sitting out in the cul de sac
and you could walk to the back window and view
it any time you wanted.
It gives you another perspective.
And if it's one thing I always look for,
it's a better perspective on things.
Now, back to what's important.
The food.
It's always about the food.
Mr. Hawthorne pulled out a few UFO's.
That's Unidentified Frozen Objects.
I determined the proteins to be a teres major cut of beef
and a mock tenderloin.
I'm only using one of the cuts for the stir fry
and I'm not sure which one.
I'm thinking it's the teres major - that's the longer cut.
The mock tenderloin looks more like a tenderloin cut.

Mr. Hawthorne thinly slices the semi-frozen beef.
For stir-frying, I like my meat extremely thin.
The way to cut them like this
is by having the meat still slightly frozen.
Your knife will glide right through.
And be sure you're cutting across the grain.
How much meat, you ask?
Figure on one steak-sized piece feeding two.

For a little seasoning,
I'm using some minced garlic
and juiced and minced ginger.
Rosie Tip #899:
When you get fresh ginger root,
cut it into 1 inch slices and freeze.
This way you'll always have ginger on hand.
And something I learned-
the only way to get juice out of ginger
is to freeze the cubes, then nuke for about 20 seconds,
and then squeeze.
Juice flows freely.
And ginger juice is a lovely thing
to add to a salad dressing, a fish, to name two.
Just something to give it a pop
and make it memorable.

Prepare the veggies:
Mushrooms.
The last of the Padron Peppers from SouthDriveIn.
Thanks again, South.
Onion, chopped.
Green and red peppers, chopped.
Celery, sliced on the diagonal.
Garlic.

I think that's down-right pretty.
I truly hope you will try a stir fry.
There are so many wonderful things about a stir fry:
You can combine any meat -
fish, chicken, pork, beef, dog, cat -
with a load of fresh vegetables,
give it a light saucy flavoring,
and serve on a bed of rice.
It's so versatile.
And it's quick.
This is what's so important about mise-en-place.
You should have everything ready,
all your ingredients,
in front of you,
for immediate access.
And have them measured out and prepared,
whether it needs to be peeled, chopped, pitted, husked, whatever.
It must be ready.
For a stir fry,
this is vital.
As I said, a stir fry is quick.
This one took seven minutes, cook time.
From start to finish.

The wok is over medium-high heat.
With 2-3 TB of peanut oil.
At 6:27, the onions and garlic went in.

6:27 PM.
Veggies in.

Stir and fry.
Removed to platter and covered at 6:28 PM.

Reheated pan and added more oil.
Meat in at 6:32 PM.
High heat.

At 6:34, he added the veggies back in
with a corn starch slurry -
3 TB corn starch mixed and dissolved in 3 TB cold water.

1 comment:

Marion
said...

Since you mention cat but not lamb, evidently cat meat tastes like lamb. The Shanghai papers were warning people about restaurants substituting cat for lamb when we were there - how to tell the difference? A cat chop is smaller that a lamb chop.